The invention relates to a method for delivering primary information that exists in at least one electronic form as well as a telecommunication arrangement and a telecommunication device that are adapted for conducting the method or for use with the method. Particularly, the invention relates to a method of delivering a primary information that allows for, beyond the fact of reading the transmitted primary information, detecting and saving the acknowledgement of the primary information by the addressee.
The proof that a certain information has been delivered to a certain information recipient can be of great importance with respect to legal or factual reasons. Concerning non-electronic transmission of information via postal delivery, it is possible to conduct such a proof for instance by transmission of a registered letter with return receipt, wherein with respect to this manner of posting the addresser receives back a notice of receipt, the return receipt, having the original signature of the recipient. Also a delivery by a bailiff is possible in some legal systems.
These well-tried methods of proving a delivery are not available with respect to electronic transmission of information, for instance via e-mail. Known e-mail programs are arranged for providing a confirmation of transmission. In such a case the addresser is informed by means of a confirmation of transmission that the transmitted e-mail message was delivered to the mailbox of the recipient. Further, a read confirmation can be requested which informs the addresser that a transmitted message was retrieved from the mailbox of the recipient and opened.
A proof of delivery of an electronic message is however not possible with such a transmission or read confirmation. This is the case due to several reasons. A first reason consists in that a read confirmation only documents that a certain message was read. The content of the message that was read is not documented. For this reason, it cannot be excluded that the originally transmitted message was delivered to the recipient in manipulated form or was only partly delivered to the recipient.
A second problem consists in that the telecommunication system of the addressee is possibly configured in such way that sending a transmission confirmation or read confirmation is denied. A “non-cooperative” addressee may therefore from his own power prevent the confirmation of receipt of the message.
A third and essential problem consists in that a read confirmation merely documents that a message was read, however allows no conclusion by whom it was read. Particularly, no conclusion is possible whether the information was noticed by the addressee, i.e., was understood semantically. As an addressee an entity is understood, that shall, according to the will of the addresser, notice and semantically understand the message, thus usually a human recipient.
Accordingly, there exists the need to provide a method for delivering primary information that exists in at least one electronic form and respective telecommunication devices that reduce the possibilities of an addressee to deny the fact of delivery of the primary information, and, in the best case, allow for the proof of the delivery to the addressee.